Former 'America's Next Top Model' Contestant Returns to the Catholic Church - Her Inspiring Story
At age 24, Sara Racey-Batraville became a contestant, "America's Next Top Model." She was wealthy and flourished in the fashion industry, but felt empty.
The half-Persian, half-Iranian model spent 15 years in New York City until she left for Arizona with her husband and son.
Racey-Batraville sat down with ChurchPOP editor Jacqueline Burkepile for an exclusive interview explaining her experience in the fashion industry and her return to the Catholic Church. She now operates a Catholic business from her Arizona home.
Watch the full interview with former "America's Next Top Model" contestant Sara Racey-Batraville below:
Racey-Batraville says that during her time in New York City, she went down "a dark path" with an eating disorder, incessantly working out, and "got very thin."
"I was making a lot of money and I was miserable at the same time," she says. "I was just so unhappy."
She then explains the moment she decided to return to the Catholic Church: seeing the Virginia Tech shooting on television.
"It was like something hit me in the face," Racey Batraville says. "It was like, 'Wake up.'"
Racey-Batraville then says she immediately "ran downstairs" and looked up her local Catholic church in the Yellow Pages. She found Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church on the upper west side of Manhattan.
"Something said, 'Go find a church. Go back home,'" she said. "I started to go back to Mass right after that."
Racey-Batraville says she credits the prayers of her mother to the Blessed Virgin Mary for her return to the Catholic Church.
"When I tell you my life changed dramatically from that moment on, it changed dramatically," she explains.
"My mother, Laura, told me later that she was so beside herself that she had to give me up to Mother Mary," Racey-Batraville continues.
"[My mother] was so afraid for me...she said, 'I handed you over to Mother Mary and I prayed for you every single day. I took it out of my hands,'" Racey explains. "When things started to turn around, and I told her I was going back to church and my life was changing, she said, 'You know, it worked."